D.J. Fluker, taken No. 11 overall by the San Diego Chargers, was one of three Alabama players chosen in the first round of this year's NFL Draft. (Associated Press)

Five-star
West Monroe (La.) offensive tackle Cameron Robinson made no bones recently
about what he's looking for in a college football program.

"It's
probably just where I feel comfortable and who's going to prepare me for the
next level after college," said Robinson, the top offensive line prospect in the country.

Small
wonder, then, that his top two choices are Alabama and LSU.

The
Crimson Tide and Tigers had nine players each selected in this year's NFL
draft. Their 18 combined picks left them just shy of three entire BCS
conferences - The Big Ten (20), Big East (21) and Big 12 (22).

Five of
those players went in the first round - Alabama's Dee Milliner, Chance Warmack
and D.J. Fluker and LSU's Barkevious Mingo and Eric Reid. Twelve of the Tide
and Tiger players selected were defensive players, including a whopping eight
from LSU.

ESPN's
Brad Edwards noted another interesting stat this week: 22 defensive players who
played in the LSU's 9-6 win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2011 have been
drafted - and a few more like Alabama's C.J. Mosley and LSU's Anthony Johnson
should join them next year. Eight of those 22 draftees were first-rounders.

This
will be part of the sales pitches that Nick Saban and Les Miles lay out on the
recruiting trail the rest of the year. If you don't think what happens in April
affects what happens in February, you aren't paying attention to what prospects
are saying.

Take Alabama
commitment Kalvaraz Bessent, a four-star cornerback Camden County (Ga.) who said
he chose the Tide because of "the history Alabama has in putting players in the
league in my position."

Even
offensive players recognize the benefit of playing alongside so many future NFL
defensive stars. "It's the closest thing you get to playing in the NFL without
being in the NFL," four-star quarterback prospect David Cornwell of Norman
(Okla.) North told Rivals.com after a recent visit to Alabama. "As a
quarterback watching that defense, you realize it prepares you for anything."

Similar
tales are being told at other schools around the SEC, which had a record 63
players selected in this year's draft. Georgia and Florida had eight apiece,
with two each in the first round. Texas A&M had five, including the No. 2
overall selection, offensive tackle Luke Joeckel.

Gus Malzahn is attempting to sell prospects on the idea of a "new day" at Auburn and the prospect of early playing time. (Associated Press)

While it's
important, however, a pipeline to the NFL isn't the only selling point in a
recruiter's toolbag. Ole Miss didn't have a single player drafted this year and
had only one draftee each of the two previous years. Yet the Rebels landed a
top-10 recruiting class in 2013.

How? By
being relentless and selling prospects on the notion that it is a program on
the rise.

Auburn
is in a similar draft drought, with only two draftees in each of the last two
years - Corey Lemonier this year and Brandon Mosley in 2012. Gus Malzahn is
attempting to sell prospects on the concept of a "new day" at Auburn, but the
Tigers don't yet have the tangible evidence of a bounce-back season upon which
to anchor that idea.

What
they do have is the promise of early playing time. Get in on the ground floor.
Get on the field in a hurry. All a prospect has to do is watch a game film or
two from 2012 to understand that there are positions to be won on this team
now.

And if
Malzahn and crew can get back to a bowl game like Hugh Freeze and Ole Miss did
last fall, then he'll have proof that the Tigers are also a program on the rise.

It'll be
tough sledding when the school across the state is sending its starters to the NFL in bunches. But some prospects will respond to the idea of
building a program from the ground up. And Malzahn must, like Auburn coaches
before him, find potential diamonds in the rough - possibly like Deshaun Davis
and Kamryn Pettway.

Meanwhile,
Alabama and LSU should keep the NFL parade going next year. Alabama's Mosley, AJ McCarron and Anthony Steen and LSU's Craig Loston, Zach Mettenberger and Lamin Barrow will be seniors this
fall and juniors such as Johnson, Cyrus Kouandjio, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and
Odell Beckham, Jr., may declare early.

And then
Saban and Miles will have a new round of examples to use on the recruiting
trail.

Contact Mike Herndon at mherndon@al.com or follow him on Twitter at
@TheMikeHerndon.